Posted on 11/08/2002 10:59:18 AM PST by winner45
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Thursday, June 6, 2002
Where have all the conservatives gone? Posted: June 6, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Harry Browne
There used to be two highly vocal political movements in America the conservatives and the liberals.
Although there were subtle variations, the basic difference between them was this:
Today, however, it's almost impossible to tell the two groups apart.
Liberals
The modus operandi of liberals has always been:
In this way they've turned education into a federal responsibility leading to unsafe schools and far too many illiterate students.
They've ruined what was once the best health-care system in history making it terribly expensive, cruelly insensitive, and totally out of the reach of many people.
They've created a permanent underclass of welfare clients, made America's farmers dependent on the federal government, and polluted the environment by putting too much land in the care of irresponsible bureaucrats.
No matter how much and how often and how harmfully government fails at what it does, no matter how many problems it causes, liberals still ask government to bring about whatever they want.
Conservatives
Conservatives used to oppose these government programs fighting them with economic arguments, pointing to unintended consequences, and citing the unconstitutionality of the proposals.
But no longer.
Conservatives have used the federal government to wage a horrendous Drug War. The result has been drug-dealing gangs in the streets, children killed in drive-by shootings, crack babies, increased drug use, and a trashing of the Bill of Rights.
And how do they propose to deal with this enormous failure?
Throw more money at it, make the prison terms more oppressive, take away more of our civil liberties, trash the Constitution even further. In other words, do more of the things that created the problems.
If someone objects, accuse him of ignoring the crack babies and the families hurt by drugs.
If government schools are a mess, cite uneducated children as a reason for a government program to subsidize private schools which will surely turn those schools into clones of the government schools (as happened with private colleges).
If federal welfare is a tragedy, propose putting religious charities on the federal dole so that they, too, can become beggars at the government trough, doing the bureaucrats' bidding in order to keep the subsidies coming.
If it's revealed that our military, the FBI, or the CIA hasn't perform its mission properly, throw more money at it, expand whatever program has failed, give more power to the bureaucrats. And if anyone objects, if anyone cites the Constitution, just accuse him of ignoring the victims of 9-11.
No matter how much, and how often, and how harmfully government fails at what it does no matter how many problems it causes conservatives still ask government to bring about whatever they want.
No difference
In other words, conservatives now sound exactly like liberals.
What did you get for your vote?
Conservative writers and commentators oppose big-government programs only if they're proposed by Bill Clinton or some other Democratic president. Then they're constitutionalists sounding the alarm against big government.
At least with Clinton, there was an opposition party. But with a Republican in the White House, there's no opposition. Thus government grew more rapidly under Nixon, Reagan, Ford or Bush than it did under Clinton.
In 2000, many people said they were voting for George Bush because he was the lesser of two evils.
But it turns out that Bush is doing all the things Gore would have done only now, there's no opposition.
So it appears that those people who chose Bush actually voted for the greater of two evils big government and no opposition.
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Harry Browne is the director of public policy at the American Liberty Foundation. You can read more of his articles and find out about his network radio show at HarryBrowne.org.
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You'll either give us the time of day or stand proven as a hypocrit. Or should we assume that you approve of candidates who say one thing to get elected, then do the opposite once you are in office?
Government grew more rapidly under Nixon, Reagan, Ford or Bush because of the DEMOCRAT controlled congress.
If that's the case, we should expect different results now?
A little hard to when he cites no empircal evidence of his allegations, which are all phrased in a "When did you stop beating your wife and dog" sort of double-speak.
Browne lost my respect when he began to write more and more of these types of articles, which do nothing to truly articulate the percieved problem, and offer nothing in return. Some of his claims have gone further and further off the deep end in the process.
Add to that the constant foolishness of some LP candidates/representatives (i.e., Mr. Smurf in Montana, and the Spitting Candidate in California), and the LP's credibility begins to sink to near the level of Lyndon LaRouche and his ilk.
While I have no problem supporting some of the issues of true libertarianism (little "l"), the LP is nothing more than a laughing stock as far as I am concerned. And as such, attacks posing as position papers like this one do not serve much more than to reenforce the increasing fringe perception that the LP has earned of late.
Hypocrite? I knew exactly who and what I was voting for on Tuesday. You, OTOH, voted for losers, people like Harry Browne whose "blame America" stance after 9/11 assures that he will get even fewer votes than he did in 2000 if the Libertarians are goofy enough to nominate him.
Or should we assume that you approve of candidates who say one thing to get elected, then do the opposite once you are in office?
I approve of candidates who will do what they say they're going to do, not embrace the dictates of a bunch of losers who didn't even vote for them.
Did you see that, for the first time in 13 years, the Libertarians won't have a slot on future Texas ballots? They didn't get 5% in any race, so they're out!
Why should you give me the time of day? Because I'd like to vote for your party, I just can't vote for the people you currently run. I will vote for RLC candidates over my own party when I have the chance. Maybe you'd like to help them get on the ballot?
C'mon sink. You know the crowd Harry Browne articles draw. Vote? Some of these guys wouldn't take a chance coming out of their bunker long enough to vote.
And the answer is < drumroll > Giddy Dole!
She's a prime example of a big government carreer politician and the poster child for what's wrong with the Republican party
Well, the very first meaningful change that will be made is that the Department of Homeland Security will become the law of the land.
And I , for one, don't like the meaning...
not one bit.
What do you thin I'm talking about you abrasive moron! Will the Republicans stick to their "smaller government" promises? It is going back on such promises that drove me from the Republican party to begin with. I cannot tolerate a LIAR.
How, in even your twisted mind, is that kowtowing to libertarian ideals? All they have to do to gain my support is stick to their own damn promises.
Is that so effing hard?
I vote Republican. Period. I'm not really interested in putting a competitor on the ballot, especially one with the potential to drain support from Republicans.
The clock is ticking? It's been about 61 hours since the Republicans have been assured of taking control of the Senate this next year and we have heard from Republicans:
-partial birth abortion is going to be banned
-we need to get the judicial nominees to the full Senate ASAP
-we need to defend our borders with troops if needed
-A trial balloon has gone up talking about scrapping the IRS and the tax code
How much faster do you think the Republicans can put out statements of what they want to do?
I voted for the most conservative candidates on the slate Tuesday; as it happens, they were all Republicans. Some of them won.
But don't read it as carte blanche support for the GOP.
If you didn't, I don't see why those of us who did should give you the time of day.
Hell of a way to defend your positions. I guess you will be first in line with the excuses.
Um, RLC members are Republicans. Small government, constitutional Republicans. What could be wrong with that?
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